Big Ten football: 3 reasons returning this fall is a bad move

3. The Big Ten is bestowing special treatment on football players

Whatever you think about amateurism, the premise remains at the heart of how college football operates. It is why we have seen officials from the Big Ten lobbying at Congress for NCAA antitrust exemptions and the ability to severely restrict name, image, and likeness rights for their athletes despite the groundswell of legislation at the state level granting athletes rights.

The Big Ten just shot any argument about impermissible benefits out the window in perpetuity with this move.

A big part of the Big Ten’s return is premised on the ability to fund a comprehensive daily rapid antigen testing program.

What this ignores, however, is whether such benefits will be available to every other student on campus… or even other athletes in other fall sports.

This gets right to the heart of the NCAA Rule Book, specifically the receipt of benefits outlined in Section 16.11.1.1:

"Receipt of a benefit (including otherwise prohibited extra benefits per Bylaw 16.11.2) by student-athletes, their family members or friends is not a violation of NCAA rules if it is demonstrated that the same benefit is generally available to the institution’s students and their family members or friends. (emphasis added)"

If such testing is not available to all students on campus, or even all students participating in NCAA-sanctioned sports, football players will be receiving impermissible benefits under NCAA rules. Given the argument that athletes are first and foremost students, any testing that goes above and beyond what is provided to the general student population is already suspect of violation.

Make no mistake, Big Ten universities have no intention of outlaying the necessary budget to test every student on campus on a daily basis. As such, the dependence on the daily administration of rapid antigen testing shoots down every argument used to date by the NCAA and its members to deny athletes the rights of other employees within the department.

In the end, what the Big Ten chose was television money over athlete health. They did so under political pressure, and in a way that shoots the conference in its own foot. A league that prides itself in being above the cutthroat considerations of other Power Five conferences just folded under pressure, and it looks far weaker now than it did when it initially stood tall and said it was putting health above entertainment.